AFC East sees a new team at the top while the bottom remains the same
By Brian Miller
The AFC East is starting to see a shake-up but it is still early in the season.
With two weeks in the NFL books, the AFC East is not quite the powerhouse that many had hoped and the division is still up for grabs.
Only the Buffalo Bills remain undefeated in the AFC East and it took the entire game against a Miami Dolphins team to get the second win. In New England, there is hope for the Patriots fan base as Cam Newton brings a different element to the offense and in New York, the Jets, well, they are still the Jets.
The Dolphins and Bills played out a back and forth game that really came down to who made the most mistakes. The Dolphins did. Kyle Van Noy dropped a pick-six interception, Preston Williams dropped a touchdown pass the series before, and the defense who did a good job at stopping Josh Allen’s running game couldn’t stop his passing game.
The Bills of course found themselves with a big divisional win but they needed to come back against a Dolphins team that isn’t very good right now. The question is are the Bills for real or are there big problems?
Not to take anything away from the Dolphins but the Bills are lucky to have gotten the win but if they are going to take the division, they need to be better.
After winning an easy game against the Dolphins, the Patriots faced a much better team in Seattle and they still almost took the game until a late touchdown drive in the waning minutes forced the Patriots to drive the field as the clock ticked down.
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What we found out is that Bill Belichick is using Cam Newton to his abilities and it seems to be working. The Patriots got a little too cute in the end. With the field in front of them, Newton took the team to the two-yard line for the win but on 4th down, Belichick opted to keep the ball in Newton’s hands and Seattle was ready. The failed attempt dropped the Patriots to 1-1 but it is clear that Newton is going to keep them in a lot of games. Enough to win the division? Maybe.
The problem for New England that I see is eventually other teams are going to pick up the weaknesses of the Patriots’ offense and once they can stop Newton’s option plays, they will force him to throw and that is where he will get beat.
If the Miami Dolphins are playing bad football right now, then the Jets are absolutely atrocious. New York managed to put only three points on the board through four quarters for the 2nd week in a row.
In week one, the Jets had three points at the half before scoring a touchdown in the 3rd and then a final score down 27-10 with less than a minute left. This past Sunday, it was more of the same for the genius Adam Gase’s offense.
The Jets managed just 13 points against the 49’ers and their only touchdown came in the 4th quarter.
After two weeks, the AFC East looks like this:
Buffalo – 2-0
New England – 1-1
Miami – 0-2
NYJ – 0-2
This week the Dolphins play Thursday night in Jacksonville, the Bills will host the Rams, the Patriots will host the Raiders, and the Jets will travel to Indianapolis.